In the typical telescopic bleacher structures employed in auditoriums, gymnasiums and like indoor enclosures, several rows of seats and foot boards or decks are normally mounted over horizontal cantilever support beams that are attached at one end to vertical support columns by bolted or welded brackets. When the bleacher assembly is extended the support columns of each successive row are moved beneath the outer ends of the cantilever beams of an overlying adjacent row of seats and decks. However, when the bleacher is folded or collapsed, the several rows of seats and foot supporting decks are in vertically superposed relationship with their support columns in side by side co-planar array and generally adjacent the rearward ends of the support beams. This leaves the seats and deck tiers cantilevered without support at their outer ends. Bleacher structures exemplary of the above described order are generally disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,183,056, issued Dec. 12, 1939; 3,222,827, issued Dec. 14, 1965; and 4,490,949, issued Jan. 1, 1985.
While many improvements have taken place over the years in the folding bleacher art, such cantilever seat and deck support systems remain in popular use. Consequently, if the bleacher assembly is in a folded or stored condition and people either sit on the top or next row of seats or stand on the uppermost foot boards or deck associated therewith, the mainframe members of the bleacher structure may be bent and deformed with the cantilever support beams and their attachment brackets in particular being bent downwardly. When the bleacher assembly is next opened or extended, binding occurs between the supporting framework for the upper seat rows and adjacent underlying row of seats. The upper support beam and bracket are thereby forced upwardly to their normal position to overcome such binding. Repeated downward and upward bending of the cantilever beam and/or its support bracket in particular eventually causes breakage leading to more serious structural failures of the bleacher assembly including dislocation or failure of the connection between the vertical support columns and the guide wheel channels at their lower ends which guide the columns in the opening and closing operation of the folding bleacher assembly.